Page:The reflections of Lichtenberg.djvu/156

 observations, blended with a little natural philosophy, would have a greater hold on people’s attention and give them more edifying ideas of God than the unhappy examples of His wrath so often adduced.

A long happiness loses by its mere length.

Reading means borrowing; inventing out of what we read, appropriation.

As soon as a man begins to see all in all, he commonly becomes obscure in expressionhe begins to speak with the tongues of angels.

Lessing’s avowal that he had read almost too much for his good sense proves how good his sense was.

One way of getting a reputation is to go with a certain confidence into some obscure, unfamiliar subject, whither no one thinks it worth while to follow you, and to discourse on it with seeming coherence.

Finery is allowable in children, because we dress them up without wanting to make their clothes expressive of their minds. A uniform or livery may be never so showy, but as soon as anyone puts clothes on his body of his own free will they are no longer a cover but a hieroglyph. Man, it is true, does not go on all fours, but he goes with all fours. Nobody can run quickly